New UAB Study Could Radically Change Fibromyalgia Treatment As We Know It

For more than a decade, Dr. Jarred Younger‘s research has been guided by one theory: Fibromyalgia is caused by an overreactive immune system. This spring, he’ll finally prove once and for all if his theory is correct, and the outcome could profoundly shift the future of fibromyalgia research.

Beginning this month, Younger and his team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will inject up to 20 fibromyalgia patients and 20 healthy controls with ultra-low doses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a molecule that’s found on the exterior of certain infection-causing bacteria, which triggers the body’s immune system response. He anticipates the fibromyalgia patients’ immune systems will overreact to small doses of LPS while the healthy controls will show little or no reaction.